The Wrath of the Kaiserin
by CuttlestheFish
Summary: Miyako was all alone in the world, she ran to an online game to escape it all. But in doing so she became a tyrant, so the destined children were called to bring her down. A Digimon 02 AU where Miyako is the Kaiserin, credit for AU creation goes to Tumblr user "burbsbear". Will have strong hints of HikaxMiya later on.
1. Chapter 1

Hello friends, I hope you enjoy the first in what I'm hoping is to be a great ride! Just gonna put out a few disclaimers before letting you loose. First off, I'm crediting this AU 100% to Tumblr user burbsbear! She came up with the idea and I am writing this fanfiction (and posting it here rather than on Tumblr) with her permission, she's also helping me out with ideas and such. So look her up on Tumblr and give her some much deserved love! 3 This fic is dedicated to her for being an awesome person! And now, enjoy...

**Chapter 1**

It was another day for Miyako Inoue, she had passed all of her first big tests for this semester with flying colors, ranked the highest in her class, and was even on the teacher's good side to sign up for computer club. The hard part would be to convince Oikawa to let her attend, he was always against her being involved with after school clubs because he claimed it would "get in the way with her studies". She leaned her head back to let out an aggravated sigh as she entered the final street to her apartment building, maybe she'd try talking to him another day...

Upon entering she noticed the extra two pairs of shoes laying by the door, lovely, they were home.

"Is that our little Miyako at the door?" Called out the gravely voice of her uncle. She felt a cold chill run down her spine, boy did she hate his voice, but masked it behind a weak grin when she entered the living area. There they were, still covered from head to toe in those ugly outfits. Her uncle always wore a thick navy-blue jacket with an usually tall matching cap, almost like a priest; while her aunt wore a slimming maroon dress with purple elbow length gloves and a red sun hat. The only conclusion that Miyako could come to was that they were former adopted children that Oikawa fostered and just stayed close. They never gave her their real names other than "just call us your aunty and uncle". She guessed that her aunt was an albino of sorts, due to her covered pale skin and white hair, and that her uncle was the victim of some kind of disfigurement... possibly a burn? She was too polite and a little nervous to ask. Her uncle gave a wicked little smile under the collar of his jacket, she mentally squirmed. "Still coming home alone I see? When are we going to meet your little school friends, Miyako?" She fingered the strap on her school-bag, eyes darting around the room.

"W-Well, it's been hectic with classes lately and everybody prefers to study alone and-"

"Hmph, still those same excuses I see?" The eerily smooth voice of her "aunt" always seemed to have the power to make everything in the room go silent. "You know you can't lie to us, sweetie. I can see right through that little act." Miyako could feel her hands trembling, she gripped the strap of her schoolbag tighter. The woman stood up and, with a few elegant strides, approached her at the entrance to the hallway. "I see karma is still taking its toll, hm?" She finished that sentence with a crooked smile, Miyako felt the blood escape from her face. She took a few steps back and bolted to her room. She sank to the floor after closing the door behind her and pulled her head between her knees. Sitting in that fetal position, she took long deep breaths to keep herself from crying. She wouldn't allow those people the benefit of making her cry. After she was sure her emotions were handled, she turned on her small computer. She pulled a small device from her school bag and held it up to the glowing screen, within seconds she was gone.

When she re-appeared, it was on the other side of the gateway. The room she phased into was dark, millions of computer screens were the main source of light. Each screen showed a different view, the jungle, the desert, the arctic, the ocean, it was all her's. Miyako sighed, a grin resting her face, and fluffed her flowing outfit before taking a seat at the line of keyboards sitting in front of the screens.

"Now, where to today?" She mumbled to herself.

"Miss? Oh my, I didn't hear you enter." A soft voice crept through the emptyness behind her. She scoffed and spun around in her chair. It was Hawkmon, the little screw-up that didn't need a dark ring.

"Well, I'm here now. Next time don't be so air-headed, idiot." She snapped towards the tiny figure before spinning around again to study the various screens in front of her. "That forest in the north, we haven't covered it completely, have we?" She pointed a gloved finger to one of the screens. Hawkmon approached the desk behind her.

"Hmm, we've breached its borders, and have workers building spires in that area, but there are a few... er... rogues, still running about." Miyako's crooked grin returned.

"I see, well then we're just going to have to fix that, won't we?" She chuckled under her breath and typed in a few codes to the main screen in front of her. Within a few minutes there would be an Airdramon waiting for her on the northern exit gate in her base. "Keep watch while I'm gone, don't break anything, got it?" Hawkmon flinched at that last part, but nodded to her when she exited. After the door closed, he sighed and rubbed a sore spot on his head. He hated it when she brought out the whip...

* * *

><p>Hikari couldn't have been more excited, she was practically jogging to the school despite having left the apartment almost twenty-two minutes early. Earlier that week she received an e-mail from her old friend, Takeru, that his mom was moving the two of them to Oidaiba due to a transfer in her company. They would be attending the same school! The two of them always kept in touch ever since that journey into the digital world years back, but sadly it was only through e-mails and letters since they were too young to actually travel and meet up. Even parents and older siblings were too busy to give them a ride or lend them a hand. The brunette rounded a corner to enter the school, her hazelnut colored eyes scanning the crowds. She hated how this was a school with uniforms, it made finding people much harder in a crowd. Her concentration was shut off when a familiar voice came from behind.<p>

"Hikari! Hey! Hikari over here!" She gave a crooked smile and turned to greet Daisuke. That spikey goofball somehow always knew exactly where to find her. The two greeted each other and started catching up about their weekends. Hikari was a tad disappointed, but figured that she could always e-mail Takeru later tonight about what number his homeroom was and they'd just shoot from there. "So, you mentioned that this old friend of yours is moving to our school? What's she like?" asked Daisuke, stretching his arms as they walked into the school.

"Well," began Hikari as they swapped shoes "He and I, um, we went to summer camp together and just never stopped talking to each other y'know?"  
>"Oh, it's a guy?" asked Daisuke, blushing a little "So, are you two, y'know?" Hikari laughed.<p>

"Oh geez, no Daisuke! He's like another brother to me, like you!" She gave Daisuke a little shove as they climbed the stairs to the second floor where their homeroom was located. Daisuke nodded, a sheepish look on his face.

"Y-yeah, okay. Hey, does he play sports?" He changed the subject quickly, Hikari couldn't stop herself from grinning at his face. The poor guy couldn't help himself.

"Well, he never mentioned it, I'm not sure. But he's into music, his brother's currently in a band, and he has a pretty big book collection. But I dunno, a lot of my summer camp friends are really into soccer." She gave a sideways grin to Daisuke, enjoying how his eyes lit up whenever the word 'soccer' was used.

Hikari stopped dead in her track when they entered the room. There he was, older and taller, but his face was still the same. It was Takeru. She couldn't help but run up and throw her arms around his body. He jumped at the surprise, but returned the hug when he realized who it was. Daisuke jogged up to the pair.

"So, I guess this is the guy, Hikari?" He asked, extending a hand. "Name's Daisuke, you and Hikari here go back?" Takeru grinned.

"Um, yeah, we had a lot of memories at camp." Takeru, despite his height, gave off a more docile aura compared to Daisuke's boisterousness. The three took their seats and instantly started chatting, while Daisuke and Takeru had different personalities Hikari ended up being their link in terms of interests. The teacher soon made his way into the classroom and calmed the class down.

"Good morning, everyone. I see you're getting a head-start on introducing yourselves to our new student, but why don't the two of you come up to the front of the class anyway and tell us a little more about yourselves?" The teacher called out. Hikari looked around the class. There was another new student in the class? The teacher motioned for Takeru and the other student to head to the front of the class, a lavender head suddenly rose up and started walking forward. It belonged to a girl that was probably a textbook example of a picked-on kid. She heard a few kids snicker behind her about the new girl's body language, her eyes barely looked in any direction but the ground. They were framed in very large, circular glasses, and were a bright sandy color. She kept her hair pulled back in a loose braid that draped over her shoulder, a few loose strands had already escaped and were trying to fly away. Compared to her, it was Takeru's turn to look brave. He gave a basic 'it is very nice to meet you, this is my name and what I like', and returned to his seat. But the new girl had a lot of trouble trying to speak up in front of the class.

"Um, m-my name... my name is Miyako and... I, um, I like computer engineering..." Hikari could barely hear the new girl, but she heard plenty of the kids behind her snickering. She felt her hands becoming fists, it wasn't like her to want to start fights but it was too upsetting. She was working up the nerve to turn around before the teacher put a hand on the new girl's shoulder and let her sit back down. The new girl practically darted back to her seat a few rows up.

"Alright class, I'm sure you'll get to know both Takeru and Miyako plenty for the rest of the school year. I'm sure you've enjoyed that English assignment over the weekend?" The teacher began scribbling a few sentences in English down on the chalkboard, the class started pulling their homework out. Hikari couldn't help but look back to the girl with the lavender hair. _She looks... so sad._

"See, one of the main things to remember about English is how they structure their sentences. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, putting genders to them, throw the way we structure them out the window because-" The teacher was interrupted by a sudden beeping on the classroom printer, with a few clicks it started printing out a document. The teacher approached with a puzzled look on his face and picked up the page, his left eyebrow raised.

"Hikari Yagami?" His eyes locked on her.

"Yes sir?" Called out the brunette, she felt her face blush as everyone in the classroom turned to look at her.

"Can you explain to me why someone would think it was a good idea to use school computers to send online-chats in the middle of class?"

"I-I'm sorry?"

"Listen, I know you kids love your video-games so much, but please leave all this 'Digital World' talk outside of my classroom." The teacher balled up the page and threw it away. Hikari's jaw dropped.

"S-Sir? May I see that please?"

"You can chat with your friends about your videogame during lunch, but until then I don't want to hear about it. And if I see anything else come out of this printer that isn't related to my class then there will be serious repercussions. Do I make myself clear?" His tone of voice meant serious business, no use risking it. Hikari nodded and let out a 'yes sir', silently praying that whatever it was would not get desperate enough to spam the printer. It was the longest morning classes of Hikari's life, and with Takeru sitting next to her it only fueled the fires of desperation. By the time lunch period rolled around, Hikari practically sprinted to the waste paper bin after the teacher left the room. Daisuke and Takeru huddled around the girl to get a look at what was on the page.

"So..." began Daisuke "what kind of game IS the 'Digital World'? Is it some kind of RPG thing?" Hikari felt her hands shaking, Takeru's grip on her shoulder became almost claw-like. The two looked into each other's eyes, both filled with an even mix of joy and horror.

_Meet Koushiro in the computer lab after the final bell. The Digital World needs us again._

_~Taichi _


	2. Chapter 2

Could this have taken long enough? Hoo-boy! Here we go, diving right back in! Once again, all credit goes to Burbsbear on tumblr for the AU concept! I'm trying to keep every detail as close to her initial ideas as possible! As always, enjoy!

**Chapter 2 **

"So wait a minute, let me get this straight, there's this place called the Digital World and it has all these monsters inside of it and you two..." Daisuke was trying to wrap his mind around the quick explanation that Hikari and Takeru gave after the final bell, but dodging students at full sprint was a bit of a distraction. Hikari was silent the entire race, why oh why did Taichi never explain things more thoroughly, or at all for that matter? Finally they reached the computer lab, a few students were still using it to do extra research or finishing projects. A familiar redhead poked like a gopher from behind a screen and waved the three exhausted kids over.

"Geez, you guys, did you run a marathon before coming here?" Koushiro raised an eyebrow,he spotted Daisuke standing behind Takeru and twitched his lip. Hikari shook her head.

"Don't worry, I know Daisuke, he's a good friend." Hikari looked up to Daisuke. "Um, we'll give you a better explanation later." Takeru leaned in and whispered into Koushiro's ear.

"He just wouldn't leave, even when we told him it was important he was so dead set on helping. I'm not sure if it's him being a really loyal friend to Hikari or him being a jerk." Koushiro nodded to Takeru before turning to the three. They all kept their voices low.

"So I assume you got Taichi's message from earlier. He sent it via e-mail during our computer lab time so I was able to get a full explanation. Apparently the gate to the Digital World has re-opened and Taichi accidentally fell through when he was doing some morning study-time at his school's computer labs. It's been open for a while since we've been gone, because there's another person going in and out of the Digital World. She calls herself the Kaiserin and she... well we suspect she doesn't really understand that the Digital World is more than just a computer-world. She's apparently a pretty good coder and was able to modify control-rings, I think she assumes it's a strategy game. Anyway, she's capturing lots of innocent Digimon and we have to put an end to it."

"So we can go back to the Digital World?" Takeru asked, his eyes widened. Koushiro nodded gravely.

"Taichi didn't know what triggered it, but apparently there are gates open." Koushiro spun his chair around to face a computer. "Apparently he was just fiddling around with .HTML and it... somehow accessed a portal." The little redhead grumbled under his breath. "He doesn't even remember what kind of coding he put in but-" Koushiro gasped and jumped a little when a flash of light filled the screen. "This can't be it! No way!" The four kids huddled around the screen.

"That has to be it!" Said Hikari, pointing to the various symbols that decorated the bottom border of the screen. "I remember seeing this kind of writing in Machindramon's lair!" Takeru nodded.

"I remember seeing it too, that has to be it." Daisuke blinked a few times at the blue-eyed boy next to him.

"So... we go in through this? Let me see, Koushiro!" The brown haired boy leaned over the red head and began blindly clicking on everything on the screen. "This is LIKE a game, at least, right?" Koushiro tried to smack his hands away.

"Hang on, Daisuke! You can't just-" immediately, the screen lit up again. A light seemed to burst from the monitor and blasted against Daisuke's chest, causing the boy to be flung back to the floor. Two other beams of light flew out, danced around the room, and escaped through an open window. The four kids ducked under the computer lab tables and thanked every being in existence that they were alone in the computer lab. When the lights escaped they slowly crawled back up, but Daisuke was studying something in his hands.

"Um... Somebody drop this?" He asked, holding out a very familiar looking object. The other three kids gasped.

"No way..." whispered Takeru, Daisuke blinked with a raised eyebrow. Hikari reached into her schoolbag and pulled out her digivice.

"Daisuke," she said, holding out her hand. "Can I see?" Daisuke held it out to her, she held the two devices next to each other. "It's a digivice alright, but it looks like an updated version? I'm not sure what this button does-" she was interrupted by a loud beeping on the screen. In a small window, a view of a forest began broadcasting. In another window, text began to appear.

_Hey, anybody out there? Koushiro, Yamato, Sora, anybody out there?_

Koushiro tried typing a response, but the text window wasn't accessible from their end. Hikari pushed to get a better look at the screen, Digimon were running past. They were obviously running from something, but what? And where was Taichi? She looked to her digivice again, then back to the screen. Koushiro growled again.

"This keyboard isn't making any changes on the screen! Did we accidentally unplug it or something?" Hikari looked at the digital script on the screen again, and stood up straight. Koushiro raised an eyebrow at the girl as she simply held her digivice out to the monitor. "Hikari?" Suddenly the screen began to glow brighter and brighter, the boys shielded their eyes as light cascaded into the room, when it died Hikari was gone.

"Prodigious!" Shouted Koushiro as he scrambled up to the screen, there was HIkari in the tiny box. She was dusting the grass and dirt off of her pants and frantically darting her head to the left and right. Before he could bring is own digivice out, he was pushed out of the way by Daisuke.

"What in the-HIKARI WHAT!?" Daisuke grabbed the monitor and nearly yanked it off the table. "HOW!?" he shouted, he let go of the screen and reached for his own digivice.

"Daisuke, wait!" Called Takeru "Look, I know we haven't explained it that well to you, but you need to understand..." the blue-eyed boy held his hands out. "The Digital World is-" The brown haired boy rolled his eyes.

"Listen, Takeru, I don't care what you say. Hikari is in there and wherever she goes, I go too!" Daisuke extended his hand to the screen, in a flash he was gone too. Takeru jumped in front of the screen.

"Keep watch out here, Koushiro!" Called Takeru before he, too, dove into the light. Koushiro could only shield his eyes and curse under his breath.

"What do they expect me to do from here?" He growled. He straightened the keyboard and began fiddling around with the screen again.

Takeru fell into the Digital World with a mouthful of dirt. He leapt to his feet and immediately scanned his surroundings, in a flash of blue and red he saw Daisuke dash around a tree and bolted to follow him.

"Daisuke, where's Hikari?" The brown haired boy looked back.

"I saw her run this way, I think she was going after a cat-thing? Was that a Digimon?" Takeru nodded.

"If it's from here, it's a Digimon." The blonde boy responded, Daisuke nodded and the two continued to run into the woods. They caught a flash of pink disappearing into a cave and gave pursuit, once they came around the corner Takeru was thrown back by a flying ball of soft fur.

"TAKERU!" A squeaky voice called, he felt small rodent-like paws clinging to his hair. Takeru immediately pulled the creature from his head and hugged him.

"Aw, Patamon! It's so great to see you again!" He couldn't break his smile when he felt his face rub against that familiar softness that comforted him not that long ago. Daisuke was simply standing with his jaw dropped, he turned to look at Hikari, she was on her knees and doing the same thing with another creature.

"I missed you, Gatomon..." she whispered to the feline-like Digimon. Gatomon purred in response and wrapped her arms around the girl's neck.

"Hey Daisuke, didn't expect to see you here!" A voice called, Daisuke jumped to attention as Taichi stepped over to him. "Actually... how did you get in? You don't-" The older boy's eyes fell upon the digivice that was in the boy's hand, his jaw dropped. "Daisuke, you-?" Taichi was at a loss for words. Hikari stood and walked over.

"It came out of the computer," Taichi spun around "I... I think more Digi-Destined are being chosen? That would explain this other girl?" Gatomon's ears pinned back.

"That girl is no Digi-Destined, Hikari. I don't know how she came here, but there is no way that girl could be one of the Chosen." Hikari looked back to her friend. Taichi nodded.

"Well, whether she is or not, she's causing trouble and we need to stop her. Augumon and I were being called to this cave here and found something, follow me." He nodded and lead the three farther into the cave. Daisuke stared wide-eyed, for a place that seemed uninhabited by people, why would there be torches lining the walls? Did someone live here? He leaned over to Takeru to whisper his question when they came into an open room that was lit by a great hole in the ceiling. Bright sunlight pin-pointed a small hill in the center of the room, perched on top was a bright red orb with the crest of courage carved into it. Hikari and Takeru looked to Taichi, who shrugged and walked over. Augumon was standing next to the orb, studying it with bright blue eyes. "Apparently it's called a 'Digi-Egg', and it's used to help Digimon achieve powerful evolutions."

"Why not just evolve like normal to fight back?" Asked Takeru. Patamon, who was perched on his head, leaned down.

"There are these things she's setting up called Control Spires, and they block out our ability to evolve unless we're under her control." Takeru's eyebrows came together. "She must have found one of Devimon's old Dark Gears and modified it, now they're Dark Rings."

Hikari felt her hands become fists as she stepped forward.

"Taichi, use the Digi-Egg! The Digital World needs us again, you said yourself in the message you sent me!" She locked her eyes on her older brother as she walked up the hill to stand by him. But his eyes fell to the ground.

"Hikari, I wish it were that easy, but..." He knelt down and put his hands around the egg, he pulled, but it wouldn't budge. "It doesn't want me." He said. Hikari's shoulders dropped when he stood again. "We need to find the next carrier of the crest of courage, and I think he's already here." Everyone turned to Daisuke, who blinked his large eyes.

"Okay now, hold up, this is my first trip here. Don't I get a tutorial stage or whatever?" He asked as he stepped up the hill. "I didn't even know what a Digimon was until today, how could I be chosen by anything?" Taichi crossed his arms and smirked.

"Neither did any of us until we were chosen. Give it a tug at least." The older boy commented in a suspiciously calm tone. Daisuke's eyes narrowed as he went down on one knee. He tried not to stare at the dinosaur-like creature standing across from him, it nodded in encouragement and seemed to smile. The brown haired boy shook his head and dove head first, he put his hands around the egg, readied his body for a big physical strain, and heaved with all his might.

In doing so, he rolled head over heels down the small hill and bumped the back of his head against the stone wall of the cave. His vision was fuzzy for the first couple of blinks, but when it came back he found himself staring into the large red eyes of a mysterious blue creature. It gave a wide, toothy grin to Daisuke and then proceeded to dance around the room, making one last bound back up to Daisuke.

"YES" It called out "YES YES YES IT'S YOU, YOU'RE HERE!" The blue creature hugged Daisuke's legs like an excited child. "You're even more awesome than I imagined!" Daisuke's face turned bright red as he stared wide-eyed at the Digimon. It let go and looked up to him, extending a clawed hand. "I'm Veemon, your Digimon partner, it's great to finally meet you!" Daisuke's tongue felt numb.

"Digimon partner? You, you and me?" He raised an eyebrow, then looked at the three other kids. "Really?" Taichi crossed his arms, his face showing nothing but bewilderment.

"Well, it's not like it's impossible. I guess you're one of us, Daisuke." Taichi grinned, making Daisuke feel a little less awkward.

"So the crest of courage has chosen a new user?" Asked Takeru, his head tilted to the side. Daisuke looked at his hands, not only did he have the egg, but another mysterious device was in his other hand. It must have materialized when he pulled the egg out. The device was silver in color, but was more like a mini-tablet that flipped open. Daisuke gave the power button an experimental press, in a flash of light, the Digi-egg disappeared. The symbol of the crest of courage popped to life on the screen. Daisuke gave a worried look to the others, who simply blinked and shrugged. Taichi turned to Takeru.

"I'm not sure, but it looks to be that way. Daisuke, that egg you had looks to have been stored in that device, we'll have Koushiro look at it when we get back. In the meantime let's just try to figure a way-" Taichi was interrupted by a loud thud and a roar. Rhythmic thumping began to echo into the cave, they were able to dive to the walls just as a hulking mass blindly stampeded through the cave. The great Digimon bucked and stomped a few times in a circle, as if an invisible and unwanted rider were clinging for its life, and stormed out the way it came. Daisuke was the first to spring to his feet.

"What in the world was that?!" He called, Veemon jumped forward in a protective pose.

"Monochromon..." growled Gatomon, she turned to Hikari and Takeru. "Did you see? That wicked Kaiserin managed to get him with one of her Dark Rings." Hikari looked back to the cave opening.

"Then let's help him, what are we waiting for?" She asked, Gatomon shook her head. "The rings are powered by the Spires, we can't evolve as long as they're there." Daisuke looked to his new device, the crest of courage seemed to be staring at him through the screen. He looked to the blue Digimon standing next to him, the two nodded then sprinted off after the Monochromon." The others tried to call him back but he ignored them.

"I don't know about this place," he said to Veemon "but this place is important to Hikari, so it's important to me. And I don't know you, but you must be important if you're willing to put up with me." Veemon gave a thumbs up in encouragement. "Okay, so how do I get this thing to work? It's gotta do something, maybe take out the spires or laser beams or something?"

"The eggs are tied to a special kind of evolution, Daisuke, called Armor Evolution! Just tap into that courage and let it go!" Veemon called as he leapt ahead of Daisuke, they reached the mouth of the cave and right into the path of the bucking Monochromon. It turned, eyes glowing red, at the two and charged. Daisuke skidded to a halt right in its path.

"Alright then, I'm counting on you buddy!" The brown haired boy held out the device as Veemon leapt to collide with the opposing Digimon. "Armor Evolution!" Another flash of light burst from the device and shot at Veemon. Daisuke saw flickers and a roar of fire, in an explosion of loose data, Veemon was gone and replaced with Flamedramon. It happened just in time for the two Digimon to collide , Flamedramon knocking Monochromon off his course and away from Daisuke. The newly evolved Digimon flexed his lean muscles and gave a smug grin.

"That all you got, big boy?" He called as the Monochromon stumbled in a wide circle. Flamedramon spread his three clawed toes in display. "Come at me!" He growled. Monochromon lunged again and Flamedramon jumped. Fire began to leap from his talons, he pointed them at the opposing Digimon and gave precise shots at the thicker armor. With each charge, he dodged and fired. It wore the larger Digimon down, first to a walk, then a crawl, then it stood on shaking legs. Flamedramon approached the Digimon, fire licking his shoulders from his claws. A ferocious toothy grin on his face. "You're mine now..." He growled.

"Wait, Daisuke no!" A voice called, Daisuke snapped out of his daze and spun around as the other three caught up to him. Hikari ran past to the fighting Digimon. "Don't hurt him! He can't help it, STOP!" The girl waved her arms at Flamedramon, snapping him out of his daze too. Gatomon leapt up at Monochromon, her ebony claws made a precise strike. In a loud crack, the Dark Ring was broken and dropped to the ground. Monochromon followed in a daze. Hikari fell to her knees and gently stroked his long face.

Takeru stormed over to Daisuke. "What were you planning on doing, Daisuke? You already wore him out, but we TOLD you he can't help himself!" Daisuke took a step back.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm still used to this being some kind of videogame and I just... I went into the zone, like at soccer practice." The brown haired boy stammered, looking down at his device. Takeru slapped his face with his palm. Taichi kept his eyes locked on his sister.

"Listen, Daisuke, while this all looks like a videogame, it's not. You need to understand that. These creatures are more than computer data, they're alive, and they're our friends. So... please don't go that far unless it's absolutely necessary, okay?" Takeru took a deep breath, trying to keep himself calm as he explained. Daisuke looked to Flamedramon as he approached the two, a glow surrounded the large Digimon, causing him to shrink. Daisuke jumped in shock as a smaller creature came out of the light to greet him. "Flamedramon is now an in-training level. Don't worry, I'll explain it all for you." Takeru felt himself giving a smile as he watched the now Demi-Veemon jump into Daisuke's arms. Taichi stepped away from the boys to be with his sister. He got down on one knee next to her, examining the Monochromon.

"Is he hurt bad?" The boy asked in a gentle tone. Hikari shook her head.

"I think he's just tired from the Dark Ring..." She said, she looked back to him. "What do we do now, Taichi? Everyone's... everyone's split up, Mimi's in America, you guys are in high school, we don't even know how to get home from here." Taichi sighed, he forgot all about the whole 'being stranded in the Digital World AGAIN' part. Suddenly a soft glow appeared behind Monochromon, the two peeked over the hulking body to see what appeared to be an old television. It mostly screeched static, but a faint noise could be heard.

"Hello? Taichi? Takeru? Hikari? Daisuke? Where- Hello?" It was Koushiro. The siblings rushed around the sleeping Digimon and crowded the TV.

"It's gotta be a way home." Mumbled Taichi, the two boys came up behind them, both curious about the sudden find. "But how do we get through?" Hikari pulled out her digivice and stared at the static screen.

"I guess... the way we came in?" She asked, and pointed it to the screen. In a flash of light the four found themselves being tossed through what felt like a very cold wind tunnel... which led them to an uncomfortably tangle pile on top of poor Koushiro. After an hour of consulting and explaining to the redhead, the team agreed to meet up the next day after school to check the gate again.

"Our best course of action is to study the gate, I couldn't get it to pop open on any of the other computers here, so there's gotta be something special about this particular one." Koushiro said, his arms crossed. Daisuke couldn't stop looking down at the little blue figure in his arms. He could hardly believe it, a real Digimon, and it was his. He also noticed Hikari and Takeru's Digimon had also reverted to smaller versions too, Taichi's somehow didn't cross over and remained in the Digital World. It was hard to split and leave for the night, but it was pretty late in the afternoon as it was.

Later that night, Taichi and Hikari were sitting in their shared bedroom on the floor. Hikari gently stroked the dozing head of Salamon, watching her brother with worried eyes.

"I was thinking about what you said earlier, about how we've all split up. Honestly Hikari, if the crest of courage has chosen a new carrier, then who's to say that the other crests haven't?" The boy pulled his signature goggles out, holding them in his hands. "It's up to us to find the next generation of Digi-Destined," he looked to his sister "more importantly, you kids." Hikari felt her breath catch in her chest, he held his goggles out to her. She blinked a few times, staring at the precious treasure that her brother never left home without.

"Taichi..." she whispered "you can't be serious." Her shoulders slumped. "You're the leader, you always were. There's no way I can do what you can do." Taichi shook his head.

"The crest of courage has picked someone else, but he has a lot to learn. I think you can hold the fort, I mean come on, you ARE my sister after all." He winked, causing Hikari to roll her eyes. Taichi scooted closer on the floor. "Listen, I'll always be here to help you, but until those spires are taken down us older kids can't evolve to help you. You and Takeru and Daisuke need to track down the other Digi-Eggs and the new Digi-Destined, we'll help as best we can, but the burden is on you kids." He held the gloves out again, Hikari hesitated, but took the gloves. Taichi smiled. "I know you're gonna be awesome." Hikari gave a shy smile, but felt a pit begin to grow in her stomach.


End file.
